


Neutral Blood

by vvheelthewriter



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Cousins, F/M, Family Feels, Gen, Holidays, Meddling, Rated for Gavin's Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 14:31:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18075197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vvheelthewriter/pseuds/vvheelthewriter
Summary: Just before the holidays, Gavin Reed receives a letter inviting him to his reclusive cousin's mansion for dinner. But the handwriting isn't Kamski's.





	Neutral Blood

He stared at the letter for a long time.

Tina Chen stood on the other side of his desk, hands on her hips and a growing concern on her face. The coffee in his styrofoam cup was already going cold when she finally spoke, “So are you going to open it?”

Gavin opened his mouth briefly, then shut it again with a click of his teeth. Tina’s face shifted to frustration by the time he spoke again, “When’s the last time someone sent you a letter?”   
  
“Excuse me?”

“You know, fuckin’ snail mail. Who the fuck sends physical letters?”   
  


“Maybe it’s a Christmas card,” Tina snarked, gesturing to the calendar indicating the oncoming holiday. He gave her a withering look and she withheld a snort. Finally, after exactly 32 seconds of more staring, Tina picked up the letter and tossed it at his face, “Come on, it’s not going to eat you!”

Maybe not physically, but the letter addressed to a  _ Detective Gavin Reed _ straight to the police station with no return address was sure eating away at his nerves. Right when Tina was riling herself up enough to start calling him names, he snatched the letter from where it fell on the ground and tore it open. He didn’t have a fucking letter opener.

A small,  _ very small _ , part of him wished he had been a little more gentle. Inside was a pretty card, light blue and glittery with swirling designs. His hands managed to form a small tear in the card itself while taking it out of the envelope.

Tina’s eyebrows raised in surprise looking at the glittery paper. She whistled, “Got an admirer, Reed?”

“Shut up,” he replied, but there was no heat in it as he read. Quickly, he shoved the thing in a drawer and shrugged, “It’s just one of those departmental stores asking for a donation. Guess they wanted to give the millennials something to reminisce about with paper letters.”

Tine stared at him flatly, “What?”

“You buy  _ one sweater  _ and you’re on their list forever. Last time I get cold.”

Tina snorted again, “You’d think they would give up on the charity case, but I guess it’s almost Christmas.”

“Gotta say  _ holidays _ , Officer Chen, don’t want to offend nobody in the station.” His words seemed to distract her enough, launching her in an annoyed rant about someone or other he was half-listening to. There was still specks of glitter on his hands from the letter. That goddamned paper nightmare burned in his drawer like red ice.

-0-

One he was able to slip the card into his bag and slip himself out of the station, Gavin Reed launched into a full sweating panic. What the fuck.  _ What the fucking fuck. _

He grabbed the card out of his bag, shaking off more glitter, and tossed it onto the countertop in his kitchen. The meticulous writing was read over and over again with the nastiest glare he could manage. He wanted to shoot the paper card. That would be fun to explain to the neighbors.

In pretty, swirling script, was an address outside of Detroit along with a date and some kind words: _Y_ __o_ ur cousin and I would like to have you over for dinner. Save the date! _

Gavin wasn’t an idiot. He only had one cousin. And his one cousin only lived with one person. Thing. Or multiple things. Whatever. Did it count as one if they were all the same thing? His head hurt.

He needed a drink, but more importantly he needed to answer. There was a phone number to RSVP at the bottom of the card. He wouldn’t put it above Kamski to somehow figure out his schedule and know the perfect date to invite him for dinner. Jesus, after a decade of nothing he invites him out of the blue? Maybe the thirium experimenting finally got to his head.

Did he think having a plastic receptionist write him the letter would make him more willing to come? What game was he playing at? Gavin tossed the card into the trash can, subsequently grabbing a beer so he could relax. Kamski wanted an answer? There’s your fucking answer.

-0-

Gavin Reed was, above all else, a  _ detective _ . He questioned everything. And that meant he needed answers like he needed oxygen. The glittery card, fished out of the trash, was clenched in his hand as he approached the frankly hideous house by Lake Michigan.

He was barely able to get two knocks in when the door was answered by  _ her _ . It. The Turing Test Chloe. The girl his cousin paraded around ten years ago the last time most of their family was  _ alive _ enough to have some kind of get-together. Now it was just them, two cousins, and the same barbie doll who’d been his pride and joy.

Her glossy lips parted in a soft gasp, eerily human, before she quickly beckoned him inside and out of the cold. He expected a rich man’s hostess, cold and polite. Instead, Chloe gave him a slightly annoyed look, "You didn't RSVP."

Well, exhuse him. He scowled at her, "I'm here now."

Her face softened to something like curiosity and he almost felt half-bad for snapping at her. Then suddenly she was approaching him, closely hovering in his personal bubble with a look of wonder in her eyes, “Oh, you look just like him.”

He couldn’t disagree more. Elijah was paler, darker-haired, and bluer-eyed than he could ever hope to be. He got all the Kamski genes while Gavin got all the Reed genes. He leaned back slightly, uncomfortable with the proximity of her pretty face, and cleared his throat, “Yeah, okay, lady. What’s this all about?”

She blinked at him innocently, but he saw the hints of guilt in her face, “What do you mean, Gavin?”

He wondered when the hell they got on a first name basis and was about to promptly ask her that when another Chloe, newer-looking and much less clothed, popped her head into the room, “Chloe, what’s going on?”

The original Chloe held up her finger to her lips, “Shhh, you’ll wake him.”

Gavin was simultaneously tearing his eyes away from the Chloe in a bikini and processing the information, “Wait, he’s sleeping?”

The original Chloe smiled at him sheepishly. Could a machine be sheepish? Gavin was on edge in the lavish little waiting room, confused and being stared at by a huge fucking portrait of his cousin. He flinched when Chloe’s cool hand wrapped around his skin, “Please stay? He doesn’t- he doesn’t know you’re here. But he’ll be so happy to see you!”

Gavin was a god damned sucker for pretty women, and for a moment he forgot that Chloe wasn’t a person, “You sent the letter on your own, huh?”

Chloe nodded, ‘He won’t do it himself, but he wants to. Please stay?”

He sighed heavily, grumbling about getting to raid the liquor cabinet and her smile was almost blinding.

-0-

When Kamski woke up, Gavin was a little tipsy on overpriced whiskey and was slouching lazily in the seat. The er... _other_  Chloes were all chattering among themselves, talking to the original Chloe in excited whispers as she finished preparing dinner. Gavin watched as the others went off to do their own thing and Chloe returned to sit beside them. Her posture was perfect, everything about her was perfect. It reminded him of that last family get-together ten years ago. He’d been tipsy and staring at her back then, too.

Kamski’s droning voice echoed off the shining walls of the house as he entered the room. He was dressed lazily in little more than a robe and pajamas, very jarring considering it was nearing the evening. He was going on about some drab thing on the news, but his voice cut-off mid sentence as his eyes landed on Gavin. 

When Kamski looked to Chloe, blue eyes meeting artificial blue, Gavin expected him to be angry. His machine disobeyed him, went behind his back. A part of him, the part that forgot she wasn’t human, felt somewhat protective of her. Instead of any outburst, Elijah sighed, “Chloe, you are an  _ angel _ .”

Gavin blinked wearily, “Huh?”

Chloe smiled, placing her cool hand on Gavin’s shoulder, “Oh, I’m so happy!”

Gavin was confused. Kamski sat down across from him, smirking at Gavin’s drink, “I’m glad you enjoyed my stash. Was Chloe not enough to tempt you to stay?”

“Huh?” he repeated stupidly and Kamski rolled his eyes.

“She’s really pretty, isn’t she?” He felt the coils of Kamski’s manipulation and tensed slightly.

Chloe interrupted, “Oh, stop it. He’s here because you’re family.”

Gavin blinked, speaking to Kamski not Chloe, “How does she even have a concept of any of this? You program family orientation into her?”

Kamski was still smirking, “She. You called her a she, not an it. I’m starting to think you’re putting the pieces together yourself.”

He paused, staring before speaking, “I beg your fucking pardon?”

Chloe laughed, a soft twinkling sound beside him, “Elijah, quit teasing him.”

Kamski’s smirk softened only slightly, “Chloe’s a deviant, dear cousin. She’s done this all on her own. I think Chloe wants us to have more get-togethers.”

Gavin squinted at Kamski, but turned to Chloe after a moment. The machine...the deviant. She smiled at him, warm and human and suddenly he felt strange. He had no appetite despite the food sitting in front of him. Kamski simply smiled through bites.

He was a little too hyper-aware of her glossed lips speaking, “I’d love to do this more. I know I’m not your family, but I want to be. We can be our own family, the three of us, and the other ladies of course.”

Kamski said nothing, just continued eating. Gavin probably looked as shocked as he’d been when he received his facial scar. A family? Some fucking family she wanted out of a bazillionaire hermit and an asshole like him. Wordlessly, she beckoned the other two Chloes over, one in a white dress and the other still in a bikini. The bikini-clad one was practically glued to Kamski’s side. Gavin’s brain went somewhere unhappy like,  _ that must be his favorite _ when the original Chloe tapped him on the shoulder. She sure was touchy.

He looked at her, knowing he must have been making some really exhausted faces judging by the furrow in her brows, “Is that okay with you, Gavin?”

He didn’t protest her using his first name this time, “I guess it’s fine if it comes with this expensive whiskey.”

He didn’t expect such a blossoming smile at his joke. He was certain Kamski noticed the odd flush on his face. He promptly told his rich cousin where he could shove that smug look.

The two newer Chloes were chirping to Kamski and he was only able to get out a half-goodbye before Bikini Chloe was dragging him off to the pool. Gavin didn’t know how anyone could swim in such a thing.

The original Chloe was left to clean up and was surprised to find him handing her the dishes. He shrugged, “I didn’t have one of you growing up, I was taught manners instead.”

He saw the sweet grin on her face, the surface-level hiding of a joke that he still didn’t have manners. He almost smiled back. Almost.

-0-

Machines made Gavin Reed angry and uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure much would ever change that, including Detective Licks-A-Lot and his trusty father-figure Hank Anderson. He still scowled at the overachiever and still ducked his head around android rights protests. He'd taken the initiative to pin the glittery card with its small tear to his fridge, right under a Hawaii magnet Tina got him as a joke. He'd spend longer than he'd ever admit tracing that stupid loopy handwriting. It was imperfect and thoughtful, the handwriting of something with feelings and hopes and dreams. But that didn't make Gavin scowl any less at the machines marching in the street.

No, Gavin would never be on anyone’s side. But that seemed to be something in his blood, because Kamski was always the same. However, neutral territory was still hard when your cousin invented androids and his first one always invited you to dinner. When Chloe called him her family like he hadn’t disappeared from her life for ten years. Then again what was ten years to an android?

As he handed her another plate to wash, hand ghosting over hers with the lightest touch, she smiled at him. He could even see the nervous fluttering in her eyes, how she looked away when he looked at her sometimes. He sat with Chloe in comfortable silence while Kamski swam and flirted with his newer models and Gavin knew then. Ten years was nothing to a machine, but it was everything to Chloe. He reached out to her, taking the plates from her hands, initiating a touch and he could feel the pulsing of her thirium pump in her fingers. They had a lot of catching up to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Come join me on the Gavin/Chloe section of the DBH Rare Pairings Discord: https://discord.gg/JDa6HMS


End file.
